Saxenda

Saxenda is liraglutide 3 mg, a once-daily injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist approved for weight management. Its label covers adults with obesity, adults carrying extra weight plus at least one weight-related condition, and children aged 12 and older with obesity who weigh more than 60 kg. It was the first GLP-1 most US patients encountered for weight, and it is now the oldest option in the category.

The registration trial, SCALE, followed adults for 56 weeks. Average weight loss was 8.4 kg on liraglutide versus 2.8 kg on placebo, with 63.2% of the treated group losing at least 5% of body weight and 33.1% losing more than 10%. Those are real results, but the head-to-head STEP 8 trial later put weekly semaglutide against daily liraglutide directly: 15.8% average weight loss versus 6.4% at 68 weeks. That gap is the main reason Saxenda has moved down most prescribing lists.

Practically, the daily schedule is the other differentiator. Dosing starts at 0.6 mg daily and climbs in weekly steps to 3 mg. Liraglutide’s elimination half-life is roughly 13 hours, short enough that the label tells you to restart at 0.6 mg and re-escalate if you have been off it for three days or more — a rule that does not exist for the weekly drugs. Side effects fade faster after stopping for the same reason, which some people prefer.

The common confusion is assuming every GLP-1 is weekly. Saxenda is not, and 365 injections a year is a genuinely different commitment than 52. It is also often confused with Victoza, which is the same molecule at lower doses for type 2 diabetes.

Reasonable questions for a clinician: whether the daily schedule is being chosen for a reason (shorter washout before surgery or pregnancy planning, for instance) or simply because that is what your plan covers; whether a weekly agent is on formulary; and how the dose ladder will be handled if you tolerate it poorly. Our Saxenda dosage chart and the side-effect trial review fill in the detail.